Please Stop Drinking Your Pee

There are loads of issues I like about Bear Grylls. I like his dedication to selling journey by means of Scouting. I additionally like that his program Man vs. Wild helped get individuals fascinated by out of doors survival. However one factor I don’t like in any respect is the way in which he’s managed to persuade the general public at giant that the answer to each wilderness emergency is to drink their very own piss.

Whereas he definitely wasn’t the primary adventurer to guzzle his personal output, Grylls’s propensity for swallowing pee on digicam was so well-known that it grew to become a meme in its personal proper (“Uber’s late? Higher drink my very own piss.”) Over the course of his present’s seven seasons he did it a number of instances, as soon as making an attempt to filter his personal urine within the Kalahari Desert and later turning a snakeskin right into a makeshift canteen for his morning constitutional within the Sahara.

Whereas the Particular Air Service veteran’s present was closely staged, it’s straightforward to seek out information tales citing pee-drinking as a consider real-life survival tales. “US journalist survived on personal urine, popped blister to drink blood after falling down cliff on solo hike” learn the headline this August within the New York Put up after rescuers situated Alec Luhn, an American hiker who had survived six days within the Norwegian backcountry after injuring his ankle. “Man Stranded in Arizona Desert for Two Days Says He Drank Personal Urine to Survive,” NBC wrote in 2017. The Australian Broadcasting Company was just a little extra enigmatic in 2022, when it acknowledged {that a} man from Perth had used a “Bear Grylls-inspired survival method” after getting misplaced in a dune discipline. (Let me spoil this one for you: The survival method was ingesting his personal piss.)

Each survival professional I do know is pounding their head in opposition to their desk studying this, as a result of the reality is that ingesting your individual urine in a survival state of affairs isn’t simply gross, it’s truly counterproductive. As survival teacher and Backpacker author Jessie Krebs informed our Out Alive podcast: “We stated 30 years in the past within the navy, individuals survive despite ingesting their urine, not due to it. And that is logical in case you actually give it some thought.”

Take into account seawater: At roughly 96.5 % water, it’s nonetheless too salty to drink. Attempt it, and also you’ll truly dehydrate sooner, as your physique pulls water out of your tissues to dilute what you’re taking in sufficient that you could excrete it. Urine is on common solely about 95 % water, with the stability being composed of salts, urea, and different waste merchandise. Imbibe that, and also you’ll end up in an identical state of affairs as in case you had gulped down a glass of the Atlantic. Repeat, and your kidneys must work time beyond regulation to filter your urine because it turns into increasingly more concentrated. The tip consequence: kidney injury, failure, and, ultimately, loss of life. Because the SAS Survival Handbook itself places it succinctly places it: “Urine and seawater: by no means drink both—NEVER!”

If ingesting your individual pee to outlive is such a nasty concept, why do misplaced hikers hold preventing down their gag reflexes to do it? We’re not ruling out desperation—when all you have got is a hammer, every thing appears like a nail, and when all you have got is extreme dehydration, any liquid would possibly look potable. The opposite a part of the difficulty? 5 years after its final episode aired, the ghost of Man vs. Wild remains to be haunting determined hikers’ brains. As Krebs identified in our interview, ingesting pee—or consuming pine twigs, or protecting your self in elephant dung to maintain flies away—will not be a useful survival method, however it makes for spectacular actuality TV. Sadly, the distinction between Worry Issue and the grosser elements of your favourite survival present usually come down principally to presentation. And,with funding for wilderness schooling getting slashed nationwide, Netflix could also be one of the best instructor most of the people has obtainable.

The lesson? Typically it actually is best to depart the stunts to the professionals.

4 Concepts Higher Than Consuming Urine

Don’t run out of water. Apparent however true: One of the best ways to keep away from getting dehydrated is to be sure you don’t run out of water within the first place. Deliver as a lot as you want—a gallon per individual per day, extra in sizzling climate—and take into account including just a little further in case you suppose your hike could run lengthy.

Study your water sources prematurely. Mark dependable water in your map (you introduced one, proper?) and examine the standing of seasonal water with locals or rangers in case you’re mountaineering within the desert or someplace that dries up at sure factors of the yr.

Use your head. Out of water, hopelessly misplaced, and much from rescue? Sit down, take a beat, and go searching. Within the mountains you could possibly discover water by heading downhill (you understand, the way in which water runs) towards the canyon or valley backside. Within the desert, all animals have a tendency to gather across the few water sources obtainable, so hold a watch out for his or her footprints.

Don’t eat. Wholesome people can survive for weeks with out consuming, and in case you don’t have entry to water, chowing down will solely dehydrate you extra. Hold on to that Clif Bar till you’re in a position to refill your bottle.